The Kings travel to Cairo and Luxor to tour new and ancient Egypt

The King and Queen travel to Cairo tomorrow for their first state visit to Egypt, a country with which both governments have maintained a "strategic partnership" since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's official visit last February. The trip will begin in New Egypt and continue in Old Egypt with Felipe and Letizia visiting the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, where several teams of Spanish archaeologists are working.

The state visit, the highest-level visit in international relations, is taking place in a turbulent regional context of war, in which the Arab country plays a prominent mediating role. Egypt, which shares a land border with Gaza (the Rafah crossing in the Sinai Peninsula) and has hosted Gazan refugees, is mediating alongside Qatar and the United States in the Gaza war. Both Spain and Egypt agree in defending the two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.

The visit relaunches the international role of the head of state, which has slowed down in recent years.

The trip also revitalizes the King's international agenda, following a few years in which foreign trips and state visits by foreign leaders have been scarce. The King and Queen are traveling accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, who emphasized that the visit "represents an opportune opportunity to continue strengthening the deep historical, political, economic, cultural, scientific, cooperative, and human ties that exist between Egypt and Spain."

The program includes two parts, taking place in Cairo and Luxor. On Tuesday, prior to the official reception, Felipe and Letizia will meet in the capital with a group of Spaniards living in Egypt, a community of around 1,000 people, most of whom are members of mixed marriages.

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The King and Queen will be received with honors on Wednesday at the Al-Ittihadiya Palace in Cairo, for a primarily institutional event. Several agreements will be signed and a bilateral meeting will be held, along with a luncheon hosted by Al-Sisi. The King will then meet with the Speaker of the Egyptian House of Representatives, Hanafy El-Gabali, and the Speaker of the Senate, Abdel Wahab Abdel Razek. On Thursday, the King will meet with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbuli and the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, Ahmed Aboul Gheit.

Also on Thursday, before traveling to Luxor, the King will chair a business forum attended by business leaders from both countries. Several Spanish companies in the fields of infrastructure, transportation, the environment, water, and energy are currently working in Egypt.

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The second half of the trip will take place in Luxor (ancient Thebes), where they will attend the inauguration of the new lighting system at the Temple of Hatshepsut, a project designed by several Spanish electrical companies. Felipe and Letizia will return to the Valley of the Kings on Friday to visit several tombs and also tour the Luxor Museum, where they will meet with several of the Spanish teams that have been working on archaeological research for decades, responsible for some of the most important discoveries about the history of Ancient Egypt.